inkbluesky

Jurassic beaver swims into view

As a Jurassic predator, it was hardly in the big league. But compared with the shrew-like stature of the earliest mammals, it was a fearsome giant.

Meet the Jurassic ‘beaver’ from China. Living 164 million years ago, it’s the oldest known furry member of the mammal family, and the first known to master swimming.

Rushkoff on the futility of artificial workplace fun

Thanks to Kevin at Consumatron.com for sending me this link to a fabulously ridiculous story about a company - Gem Plumbing and Heating - hiring “Fun University” to help them make their boring workplace more fun.

No, it has nothing to do with the work at hand, but completely extraneous bouts of silliness, as in: “About 100 cans of silly string were placed around the building, and when employees got their hands on them, this building just exploded. It was an absolute blast.”

As I try to explain in the “follow the fun” chapter of Get Back in the Box, efforts like this are really stupid, and actually defeat the whole point. By making the “fun” at work extraneous - external and unrelated - to the boring and dull work that people are actually doing, it only exacerbates the problem. It’s like giving kids dessert as a “reward” for finishing the main part of the meal. Why do they need a reward? Because the main meal tastes terrible!

from The Slideshow,

Alice Marshall notes that a Virginia state senator introduced a sensible bill to keep “youthful indiscretions” in the form of a first offense for marijuana from being made permanent on a person’s record. Good idea, but, alas, voted down.